


Day 10: Frost

by Sang_argente



Series: 25 Days of Fic 2.0 [10]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Memories of The Cage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 14:45:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5421026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sang_argente/pseuds/Sang_argente
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Sorry if it's a bit chilly. Most people think I burn hot. It's actually quite the opposite.”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day 10: Frost

_“Sorry if it's a bit chilly. Most people think I burn hot. It's actually quite the opposite.”_  


The words played on repeat, circling through Sam's mind over and over as he stared out the front window of the Impala. The loop had been going all day, quieting down when Dean was taking up his attention, only to come back faster and louder when Sam was left alone.  


He and Dean had been on a hunt for the past few days, a seemingly simple salt and burn in Arkansas. _Seemingly_ simple because, as they found out after burning the body, the spirit had been attached to a specific object long lost to time. It had taken longer than they expected to find a small photograph in an abandoned house and neither had noticed the temperature dropping as the days went by.  


Not until this morning, that is.

They'd been preparing to leave, Sam checking the room one last time for anything they might forget, when he heard Dean cuss from the parking lot.  


“What is it?” Sam had asked, after making his way over to his brother.  


“Frost,” Dean had spit out, waving his hand at the Impala. Anger had burned hot on his cheeks but it had drained fast. There wasn't anyone to blame so Dean had had to let it go.  


Sam, on the other hand, had just stared at the frost covered window with blank eyes, lost in the memory of a different window in a different state years ago. He'd just managed to get into the car without worrying Dean when a soft voice echoed in his ears, muffled and stretched by time but still familiar.  


_“Sorry if it's a bit chilly. Most people think I burn hot. It's actually quite the opposite.”_

He had jerked his head, looking for the source of the voice frantically, only stopping when he had seen the look on his brother's face.  


“Man, what's up with you?” Dean had asked, squinting at him suspiciously.  


“Nothing,” Sam had answered as he shook his head. It was the last thing he had said before his thoughts were taken up for hours by that voice, those words, and a strange tickle in the back of his mind.  


And that was where he was now. On his way to hunt a werewolf in Nebraska with his brother, hours of silence stretching between them. It wasn't until they pulled into the gravel parking lot of another tiny motel that Sam spoke up.  


“Here?”  


Dean nodded and threw open his door. “Cheapest game in town, Sammy. You'll live.”  


“That's not what I was asking,” Sam muttered under his breath as he got out and followed his brother. The job was another half hour west and he didn't understand why Dean had stopped early.  


They checked in quickly, ignoring the clerk's flustered confusion when she claimed they were a cute couple. When they got into the room, they worked around each other easily as they placed multiple protections around the room. A few quiet minutes later, Dean stood from where he'd been pouring a thin line of salt along the door. He dropped the salt canister on the table, swept his hands across his jeans, and nodded in satisfaction.  


“Now,” Dean said, clearing his throat as he turned to look at Sam. “I'm gonna go find some grub, maybe hit up a bar. You stay here and get some sleep. I expect you to be out of this funk when you wake up.”  


“I'm not in a funk!” Sam protested.  


“Whatever, princess. You haven't been this quiet since we shoved your soul back inside.”  


Sam flinched, hating the reminder that there had been a time when he was something even worse than he was now. He knew Dean didn't blame him for the things he had done while soulless, but he blamed himself. It had still been his body. Besides, it wasn't like he'd been doing much good to counteract his soulless self’s actions while he'd been stuck in the Cage.  


“Fine,” Sam nearly hissed, accepting the apology shining in Dean's eyes but ignoring it for the moment. “Don't get so drunk you can't find your way home.”  


“That was one time!” Dean cried. He'd been on his way out, but he couldn't let that insult stand.  


It lead to a heated recounting of every time one of them had been drunker than the other, every embarrassing detail being spilled out into the night almost as if to take up the space that had been created between the brothers by the long silent car ride. After nearly an hour, Sam was so frustrated he was begging Dean to leave so he could sleep. He shoved brother out the door, slamming and locking it behind him before he moved to the bed.  


If he was honest, he really did need the extra rest. And it was what Dean wanted, so he wouldn't be mad when he came back to find Sam dead to the world. Maybe, Sam thought to himself as laid down, just a short nap wouldn't be so bad…  


_It was the Cage, just as Sam remembered during his flashbacks. Hot. Burning. His skin was melting, bubbling, flaking as it burned and healed and burned. He could feel the fire in his soul feeding the fire in the Cage.  
_

_“Sorry if it's a bit chilly.”  
_

_There was a brief respite from the flames occasionally, though Sam struggled to keep time in Hell. It came at almost regular intervals though, long waves of icy coldness that soothed his fevered flesh and aching soul. It chilled him so deeply sometimes that he feared his bones would freeze and shatter, stab and slice him from the inside out. That, too, came almost regularly.  
_

_“Most people think I burn hot.”  
_

_There wasn't much room in the Cage for anything other than pain and suffering and fear, but Sam sometimes had short bursts of other emotions. Relief. Joy. Humor. Especially when he realized he was comparing the coldness that saved him from the literally body melting flames to winter. It gave him the same blue fingertips and frosted breath that he might be struck with in the winter topside and it gave him a weak semblance of routine, like the changing seasons.  
_

_“It's actually quite the opposite.”  
_

_But it always faded. It appeared and peaked and disappeared, leaving behind increasingly scorching fire to burn him away. As much as he appreciated the short relief, it always seemed as if the fire was twice as bad the next time. It grew hotter and stronger and more painful until not even the coldness could soothe him. He struggled and cried as the heat seemed to burrow into him, setting his soul ablaze. Tears streamed from his eyes and skin fell from his bones and screams poured from his throat.  
_

_“Sorry-”_  


Snapping awake, Sam threw himself out of bed and into the bathroom. He was shaking hard enough to hear his teeth rattle and his body was slick with sweat, making his hands slide from the rim of the toilet. He heaved roughly, bringing nothing but bile up his already aching throat.  


“I remember,” Sam said quietly, struggling to not choke on his tears. “I remember, I remember.”  


He'd been protected in the Cage, his soul kept from total destruction by gentle handling. He'd been burned and he'd been frozen, but in careful measurements. Castiel’s attempt to remove him had angered the Cage, forcing it to burn brighter and hotter and longer, but there was only one being in the Cage, in the entirety of Creation that could have frozen him like that.  


_“Sorry if it's a bit chilly. Most people think I burn hot. It's actually quite the opposite.”_  


In the morning, when he and Dean woke to find a few inches of snow on the ground and ice creeping across the windows, he would lay his forehead against the glass and sigh, bittersweet.

**Author's Note:**

> prompts are still open at my [tumblr](http://stilesthesasswolf.tumblr.com) even tho i'm a bit behind. any pairing and any fandom accepted.


End file.
